# Show HN: Bolnee-Chat – Self Hosted Chatbot Integration in Your Business Website

> Source: <https://github.com/AniketWathore/bolnee-chat>
> Published: 2026-08-30 09:56:05+00:00

**Chatbot integration in your business website. Self hosted, free forever!**

Bolnee-Chat is a self-hosted RAG chatbot platform. Create a bot, add your website + PDFs as knowledge, pick any OpenAI-compatible provider (OpenRouter, OpenAI, Groq, Ollama, vLLM), and embed a 2-line snippet. Answers are grounded in your sources with citations, visitor chats are grouped and exportable, and everything runs on your infrastructure with SQLite.

|
No vendor lock-in, no per-message billing. Run on your server, Vercel or Cloudflare Pages — SQLite, no external DB. |
Crawls your site + ingests PDFs/TXT/MD/DOCX, chunks to SQLite FTS and builds grounded prompts. Sources are cited, fallback is configurable. |
Copy |

**Also in the box:**

**Knowledge management**— lists`locator · type · status · error · date`

with delete; append more via**Add knowledge**.** Avatar file storage**— data URLs converted to`/api/public/avatar/:id`

(2MB limit,`data/avatars/`

).**Encrypted provider keys**— per-bot`apiKey/baseUrl/model`

via AES-256-GCM, never exposed in snippet.**Dark-mode console**—`#020617`

bg,`#1e293b`

cards,`slate-800`

inputs, no white surfaces.

| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
OS |
macOS, Linux, Windows (WSL) |
Runtime |
Node.js 18+ |
Package Manager |
npm |
Python |
3.10+ (crawler, optional but recommended) |
Python Deps |
`aiohttp` , `beautifulsoup4` , `lxml` , `requests` , `brotli` (+ `playwright` for JS-heavy sites) |

```
# Clone
git clone https://github.com/AniketWathore/bolnee-chat.git
cd bolnee-chat

# Env
cp .env.example .env
# edit .env — simplest self-hosted:
# DISABLE_AUTH=true
# JWT_SECRET=change-me-32-chars
# LLM_BASE_URL=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1   # optional global fallback
# LLM_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...                     # optional global fallback
# LLM_MODEL=inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-fin:free

# Install
npm install

# Python crawler deps (optional)
pip install aiohttp beautifulsoup4 lxml requests brotli

# Verify
npm run lint    # tsc --noEmit
npm run build   # vite + esbuild → dist/
npm run dev     # http://localhost:3000 (auto-fallback to 3001 if busy)
```

SQLite is created at `data/bolnee.db`

(git-ignored). Crawled sites → `data/{chatbotId}_website.json`

, chunks in SQLite.

**Create chatbot**—`+ New chatbot`

→ name + avatar (preview ≤2MB).**Add knowledge**— enter`https://your-site.com`

and/or upload PDF/TXT/MD/DOCX/FAQ → status`queued → indexed`

.**Configure provider**— choose provider →`Fetch models`

→ pick model → Save. Keys encrypted, not in embed.**Embed**— copy snippet from`Overview`

:

```
<script>
  window.BotConfig = {
    botName: "Customer Bot",
    avatar: "https://your-domain/api/public/avatar/BOT_ID",
    chatUrl: "https://your-domain/api/public/chat/BOT_ID",
    accentColor: "#111111",
    greeting: "Hi! How can I help?",
    theme: "dark"
  };
</script>
<script src="https://your-domain/chatbot-widget.js" async></script>
```

Paste before `</body>`

. Widget stores `VISITOR_ID`

+ chat history in `localStorage`

; greeting shows once.

| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
Overview |
Live status, messages/users/sources, embed copy (`src/components/ChatbotDashboard.tsx:244` ) |
Appearance |
`name/avatar/accent/theme/greeting` + live preview (`src/components/ChatbotDashboard.tsx:282` ) |
Chats |
Grouped by visitor → date, `CSV/JSON/PDF` , `Refresh` (`src/components/ChatbotDashboard.tsx:371` ) |
Knowledge |
Sources + `Add knowledge` wizard (`src/components/ChatbotDashboard.tsx:449` ) |
Settings |
`provider/model/baseUrl/apiKey` , `defaultMessage/fallbackMessage` , `Danger zone` delete (`src/components/ChatbotDashboard.tsx:493` ) |

| Method | Path | Description |
|---|---|---|
`POST` |
`/api/chatbots` |
Create bot |
`GET` |
`/api/chatbots` |
List bots |
`PATCH` |
`/api/chatbots/:id` |
Appearance + provider (`name/avatar/accent/theme/greeting` + `provider/model/apiKey/baseUrl` ) |
`GET` |
`/api/chatbots/:id/appearance` |
Get appearance (`server.ts:728` ) |
`GET` |
`/api/chatbots/:id/messages?limit=200` |
Grouped messages |
`GET` |
`/api/chatbots/:id/stats` |
`total/users` |
`GET` |
`/api/chatbots/:id/messages/export?format=csv|json` |
Export |
`GET` |
`/api/knowledge/sources?chatbotId=ID` |
List sources |
`POST` |
`/api/knowledge/sources/:chatbotId` |
Add URL (`{url}` ) or file (`multipart` ) → `queued` |
`DELETE` |
`/api/knowledge/sources/:sourceId?chatbotId=ID` |
Delete source + chunks |
`POST` |
`/api/public/chat/:chatbotId` |
SSE chat `{message, visitorId}` → `data: {token|error|sources}` + `data: [DONE]` |
`GET` |
`/api/public/knowledge/:chatbotId` |
Public knowledge (cached) |
`GET` |
`/api/public/avatar/:chatbotId` |
Avatar file or redirect |
`POST` |
`/api/providers/models` |
List models for `provider/baseUrl/apiKey` |
`GET` |
`/api/stats` |
Global `totalMessages/activeSessions` |

Streaming: `public/chatbot-widget.js:311`

reads SSE via `getReader()`

, falls back to `text()`

+ SW bypass for `locked`

streams. Visitor grouping via `X-Visitor-Id`

(`VISITOR_ID`

in `localStorage`

).

| Path | Role |
|---|---|
`server.ts` |
Express + Vite dev, auth (`DISABLE_AUTH` ), ingestion, RAG, SSE chat (`server.ts:282` ) |
`server/db.ts` |
SQLite (`better-sqlite3` ) — `chatbots/sources/chunks/messages` , `getChatbotAppearance` |
`server/ingestion.ts` + `crawler/run_crawler_for_bolnee.py` |
Crawl → `/data/{id}_website.json` → chunks |
`crawler/crawler.py` |
Same-origin crawl, `robots.txt` , `h1/h2/p/li` extraction, sitemap + homepage |
`public/chatbot-widget.js` |
Embeddable widget — `BotConfig.chatUrl` , accent, greeting, theme, `VISITOR_ID` , history |
`src/components/ChatbotDashboard.tsx` |
Tabs: overview/appearance/chats/knowledge/settings, `embedCode` with `theme` |
`src/components/KnowledgeSection.tsx` |
4-step wizard: Knowledge → Provider → Processing (polls status) → Embed |
`src/components/Overview.tsx` |
Stats + grid of 4 bots + `View all` |
`src/components/BotCreationWizard.tsx` |
Name + avatar upload (2MB limit) |
`src/index.css` |
Dark-mode tokens (`--color-bg #020617` , `--color-card #1e293b` ) |
`vercel.json` / `wrangler.toml` |
Hosting rewrites, `bucket = "./dist"` , `DISABLE_AUTH` |

Dashboard is fully API-driven (`/api/*`

relative) and auto-configures `window.location.origin`

for embed URLs.

**Vercel:**

```
# env
DISABLE_AUTH=true
# JWT_SECRET not required for simple mode

# vercel.json already: rewrites /api/:path* → /api, /(.*) → /index.html, outputDirectory: dist
npm run build && vercel --prod
```

**Cloudflare Pages / Workers:**

```
# wrangler.toml: bucket = "./dist", DISABLE_AUTH=true
npm run build
wrangler pages deploy dist
# or: npx wrangler deploy
```

Chat endpoint streams SSE; for external sites use public `https://`

`chatUrl`

(not `localhost`

).

| Env | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
`DISABLE_AUTH` / `VITE_DISABLE_AUTH` |
No-login console (single-tenant) | `false` |
`JWT_SECRET` |
Auth signing key (16+ chars, prod required) | `development-secret-change-me` |
`LLM_BASE_URL` / `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` / `NVIDIA_API_KEY` |
Global provider fallback (per-bot settings take precedence) | — |
`LLM_API_KEY` |
Global API key fallback | — |
`LLM_MODEL` |
Global model fallback (e.g. `openai/gpt-4o-mini` ) |
`gpt-4o-mini` |
`PORT` |
Server port (auto-fallback `+1` if busy) |
`3000` |

`.env.example`

documents all.

| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
Port `3000 in use → 3001` and embed fails on external site |
Embed uses `window.location.origin` ; regenerate after restart or deploy to public URL (localhost embed is `https://` mixed-content) |
`getReader locked` / `ReadableStream locked` |
Bump `public/sw.js` to `v3` skips `POST /api/public/chat` ; hard-refresh to update SW |
Model `404` / `402` |
Use Fetch models → pick `:free` (e.g. `inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-fin:free` ) or add credits |
`404` knowledge/avatar |
Ensure `data/bolnee.db` exists and bot `id` matches `data/{id}_website.json` |
| Avatar too large | PNG/JPG/WEBP ≤2MB; data URLs auto-converted to `/api/public/avatar/:id` |
| Greeting repeats on open/close | Fixed in `public/chatbot-widget.js:115` — `saveHistory/loadHistory` in `localStorage` + `engine=true` guard; clear `bolnee_msgs_*` to reset |

```
npm run lint      # tsc --noEmit clean
npm run build     # vite + esbuild → dist/
npm run dev       # http://localhost:3000
# Manual:
# 1. Create bot → avatar preview → Save appearance → preview updates
# 2. Add knowledge: URL + PDF → status queued → indexed
# 3. Provider → Fetch models → pick :free → Save
# 4. Overview → Copy embed → paste in plain HTML → widget loads, greeting once, close/open keeps history, dark/light/auto themes correct
# 5. Chats → grouped by visitor → CSV/JSON/PDF export
# 6. Settings → default/fallback messages → Chat without sources returns fallback
```

Distributed under the [MIT License](/AniketWathore/bolnee-chat/blob/main/LICENSE). See [ LICENSE](/AniketWathore/bolnee-chat/blob/main/LICENSE) for more information.